The present invention relates generally to control of switches, and more specifically, relates to control of switches with light beams.
Micro electromechanical switches (MEMs) are finding applications in a variety of fields. The MEMs typically are controlled by control lines etched onto semiconductor chips. For many applications, the control lines occupy a significant percentage of the available chip real estate. For example, in applications involving thousands of MEMs, the large number of requisite control lines quickly overwhelm the available area on the chip, thereby limiting performance. This invention addresses the problem and provides a solution.